Guatemala Day 1 (Saturday 10/21/17)

Our adventure started at the crack of dawn, otherwise known as 3:00 in the morning. I had slept terribly for less than four hours, because I was anxious about the trip and what I might have forgotten to pack.

Bleary-eyed, Dan, Katie, and I loaded the car with our suitcases then headed to Connie’s house. Her husband, John, drove us to the airport so we wouldn’t have to leave our car in long-term parking. On the way, I got a little slap happy and Connie and I devolved into snorting fits of laughter.

Airline check in took longer than I expected, but security was fast because we had TSA Precheck for the first time. We met up with the rest of our crew of twelve when we got closer to our gate and found them in line for Starbucks coffee. We made sure to get a group "before" photo.

The Hurry Up and Wait segment of our travel started as we waited to board, then waited to depart, then waited to land and disembark (such a fancy word) in Dallas. When we got to our gate in Dallas, the flight to Guatemala City was already boarded and we got hustled on to the plane. Katie, Dan, and I settled in to our seats and I grudgingly graciously let Katie have the window seat so she would have the best view as we arrived in Guatemala.

Once we were seated, we perked up when we saw each seat had its own TV screen/tablet. Dan found a trivia game on the screen, and we figured out how to compete against each other. For just a few rounds, I was actually winning until my family overtook me. Boo.

When we started our descent into Guatemala City, Katie and I crammed our faces into the airplane window so we could see the beautiful mountains and landscape of Guatemala. Once we landed, we grabbed our carry-ons and hustled off the plane so we could start a new round of Hurry Up and Wait: wait for the bathroom, wait for customs, wait for luggage. Our team amused ourselves by trying to beat each other through customs, and I’m happy to say our family wasn’t last.

We got our suitcases, gathered ourselves, then followed our team leaders (Sonja and Connie) towards the exits. That’s when I saw a mass of humanity pressed up against the glass doors from outside the airport. The first thing to flash through my mind was an image from the TV show The Walking Dead, when zombies similarly pressed up against glass doors. When we got closer, I realized it was a crowd of people waiting for loved ones to arrive at the airport – plus street vendors mixed in. But we still had the task of pushing our way through the crowd, so we followed Sonja and Connie. I kept Katie in front of me so she was always in my sight, and we plunged in.

On the other side of the crowd, we waited on the curb until our Living Water Guatemala director, Jaime, found us. While we waited, Katie asked me about the crowd of people still pulsing near the airport doors. She asked, “Mom, are they protesting?”

We live in St. Louis, where the current cultural climate means protests are an everyday happening. It never occurred to me that Katie would see the crowd as a group of protestors, but it’s the reality she knows from life back home.

Team leader Jaime and Nestor, our second-in-command and van driver, loaded our suitcases into a truck and then loaded the Americans into the van, and we hit the road for the hour-long drive to Antigua. At first, my brain worked overtime to take in all the sights outside the van windows. Katie and Hannah, the other 14-year-old on our trip, sat in the back seat and giggled and made hand puppets out the back window.

After a little while, my brain went into sensory overload and the airplane exhaustion and early morning wake up time hit me hard. I was desperate to fall asleep in the van, but being in the next-to-last row on curvy roads made my drowsy turn into woozy. I laid as flat as possible and tried to doze until we arrived in Antigua.

Photo by Lisa McCutcheon

The Living Water office compound is behind a gated stone wall that’s protected by an armed guard. Our vehicles rolled through the gates, which closed behind us. We grabbed our baggage, divvied up rooms, and had a few minutes to settle in before getting a mid-afternoon snack that was prepared by a cook and Jaime’s mother: corn tortillas filled with cheese, and fresh strawberry juice to drink.

Photo by Lisa McCutcheon

After a while, we loaded back into the van and headed into Antigua through cobblestone streets that jostled and bumped. Nestor proved his driving skills by parallel parking in the tightest spot I’ve ever seen.

Jaime led us to the local version of a Wal-Mart, a large store with everything you could imagine inside: fruit, fresh meat, cereal, chips, drinks, socks, underwear, toiletries, electronics, etc. There was so much to look at, but not much time to wander.

We each picked out some breakfast items and snacks for the job site, paid and then headed to a nearby market where Jaime bought fresh fruit from a vendor. (And the vendor let us each have a mini banana.)

We loaded back into the van and headed to the compound for downtime (we found wifi at the Living Water offices and crowded outside it) and dinner.

After dinner, we spent a little time on group introductions so Jaime and Nestor could get to know our names and we could learn about our two guides. We each talked a little about why we came to Guatemala, then Jaime gave us the run down of our next day’s plans.

After wrapping up, we tried to coordinate a card game while others showered. Hannah and Katie taught a handful of us how to play the game Mafia, but we didn’t last long because our travel day had exhausted us. Off to bed!

Click here to read about day 2 of our trip to Guatemala.